726
@qikipedia
In 2006, The Ig Nobel Prize in Literature went to the Princeton psychologist Daniel Oppenheimer for his paper ‘Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly’. @improbresearch
727
@qikipedia
What one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life. C.S. LEWIS
728
@qikipedia
According to a study by Cardiff University, both men and women are judged to look better when they are wearing a face mask.
729
@qikipedia
Isaac Newton was such a bad teacher that no one enrolled in his classes.
Since his contract required he teach, he sometimes lectured at an empty room.
730
@qikipedia
"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanised farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats." J. R. R. TOLKIEN
731
@qikipedia
In 2017, the Swiss village of Bergün/Bravuogn made it illegal for tourists to take photos there because "it is scientifically proven that beautiful holiday photos on social media make the viewer unhappy because they cannot be there themselves".
(Image: Adrian Michael; CC BY-SA.)
732
@qikipedia
One in eight Britons reports that they feel tired all the time.
733
@qikipedia
In Sweden, the @ symbol is sometimes called a 'kanelbulle' - a cinnamon roll.
(Image: Marco Verch Professional Photographer; CC BY.)
734
@qikipedia
"We are always living in the final days. What have you got? A hundred years or much, much less until the end of your world." NEIL GAIMAN
735
@qikipedia
It is illegal to mispronounce "Arkansas" while in Arkansas.
736
@qikipedia
The English word ‘fact’ originally meant an action or deed, particularly an evil one (from the Latin ‘facere’ - to do). It only acquired the sense of ‘something known to be true’ around 400 years ago.
737
@qikipedia
The invention of glass spectacles in the late 13th century lengthened the professional life of scholars and craftspeople by fifteen years or more, by enabling them to read or practise detailed work for longer.
738
@qikipedia
There is no such thing as ‘a daddy longlegs’. There are at least three different creatures that answer to that name: the cellar spider (an arachnid); the harvestman (an arachnid but not a spider); and the crane fly (an insect, picture below).
Image: neurovelho, CC BY-SA 3.0
739
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: SLEEVEEN (Irish English) — an untrustworthy person.
740
@qikipedia
Some ancient insects have been found preserved in amber halfway through a fart. [Image: G. Poinar]
741
@qikipedia
In Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs and still spoken in Mexico, gold is ‘coztic teocuitlatl’ (‘yellow divine excrement’) and silver is ‘iztac teocuitlatl’ (‘white divine excrement’).
742
@qikipedia
Your cat can tell if you are upset. It simply does not change its behavior.
743
@qikipedia
Last year, a nine-year old female macaque at the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden violently overthrew the previous male leader.
She is the one of the first known female macaques to contest leadership of her troop.
744
@qikipedia
In 1900, Argentina had a tax on unmarried men - but men whose proposals were turned down were exempt from the tax.
Enterprising women promptly set up businesses where they would reject men's proposals so they could be exempt from the tax.
745
@qikipedia
75 acts are competing to represent San Marino at @Eurovision 2022. That’s more than three acts for every square mile of San Marino.
746
@qikipedia
"Perhaps if we saw what was ahead of us, and glimpsed the follies, and misfortunes that would befall us later on, we would all stay in our mother's wombs, and then there would be nobody in the world but a great number of very fat, very irritated women." LEMONY SNICKET
747
@qikipedia
Word of the day: LIBROCUBICULARIST - someone who reads in bed
748
@qikipedia
In order to test in-flight wifi, Boeing fills their planes with potatoes.
Potatoes interfere with signals the same way as the human body.
The project was called Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution (SPUDS).
(Edited image: Superjet International)
749
@qikipedia
No one knows if spiders fart.
750
@qikipedia
Farewell to Barry Cryer, a comedy legend and a much loved member of the QI family. Our thoughts are with Barry's friends and family.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves